Mass Effect 2 - Post-release Articles

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Mass Effect 2 - Post-release Articles

Post by Shir'le E. Illios »

I’m getting a little backlogged; I’ve got loads of news links for Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age stored, as well as some other bits and bobs. And with work being rather busy I don’t have much time to write these news updates, so it might take a bit to get around to the rest of it. But I’ll do my best to post the Mass Effect 2 links I have here now.

With the game being released a week ago a lot of sites have a variety of articles and news updates on Mass Effect 2. I’ll try and go through them quickly, pointing out the ones I think are more interesting; I’ll probably not posts quotes for all of them though.

Let’s start with a little bit of humor. About a week ago Kotaku asked people to post pictures of their Commander Shepards and then [url=http://kotaku.com/5459307/here-are-your ... /:20vdenod]posted those for everyone[/url:20vdenod]. Not only does that show a nice variety in the customization options, but there is one in particular which had me chuckling. Can we guess which one that was? Yes, we can. ;)

Usually with a game you get a bunch of previews before release, and then around release you get a bunch of reviews. And as shown in the review flood post most sites have made their contribution to the latter already. However, the last few days I noticed a curious tendency of gaming sites to post additional opinions on Mass Effect 2 [i:20vdenod]after[/i:20vdenod] their original review.

First of these is [url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/106/10649 ... l:20vdenod]IGN’s Second Opinions[/url:20vdenod], though I haven’t read this yet as they say that it contains story spoilers. But in it a number of IGN employees give their thoughts on the game.

Gamasutra has an article titled “[url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2695 ... p:20vdenod]Analysis: [i:20vdenod]Mass Effect 2[/i:20vdenod]’s Surprising Genre Experiment[/url:20vdenod]”. Here it looks at the changes made to Mass Effect 2 compared to the first game. I don’t recall it having any spoilers; here’s an excerpt:

[quote:20vdenod]As I played the first few hours of Mass Effect 2, I found myself constantly surprised -- not by the early twist which allows for a clean break between the plot of Mass Effect and its sequel, but by how much of the game had been heavily redesigned.

Having now completed the game, I find myself wondering whether BioWare has managed to codify a genre whose relative rarity I have often found odd: the action-game-with-classes-and-dialogue, to coin a clumsy phrase.[/quote:20vdenod]
Over at Gear Diary there’s a “[url=http://www.geardiary.com/2010/01/29/vid ... /:20vdenod]Video Game First Impressions[/url:20vdenod]” article. It’s not really a review or a follow-up, though it’s probably close enough to the first to count.

GamesRadar has a “[url=http://www.gamesradar.com/f/mass-effect ... 2:20vdenod]Mass Effect 2 Romance Guide[/url:20vdenod]” where they list the possible romances for both male and female characters, but don’t really go into how to achieve them (though I think that’s pretty much just a “continue to be very nice to them” for all of them). Obviously the article contains romance spoilers, so read at your own risk.

Another article/video over on IGN is “[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/106/10654 ... l:20vdenod]The Blyth Report[/url:20vdenod]” in which Jon Blyth give some of his views on the game. Though the video isn’t really to my taste and I don’t think his criticisms are entirely valid, I do agree with him in so far that I’m not entirely happy that we have to play BioWare’s Shepard instead of truly being able to define our own. One of the main reasons why I find Dragon Age: Origins more enjoyable than Mass Effect 1/2 (despite much enjoying those as well). Anyway, here’s the video:

[center:20vdenod][html]<object id='ignplayer' width='640' height='360' data='http://media.ign.com/ev/embed.swf' type='application/x-shockwave-flash'><param name='movie' value='http://media.ign.com/ev/embed.swf' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='allowscriptaccess' value='always' /><param name='bgcolor' value='#000000' /><param name='flashvars' value='vgroup=blyth_report_mass_effect&object=14235019'/></object>[/html][/center:20vdenod]
Over at The Escapist some of the employees have written their views on Mass Effect 2, after their official review, as well. The first of these is titled “[url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... 2:20vdenod]Why I’m Not Playing Mass Effect 2[/url:20vdenod]” isn’t all that interesting because it refers more to the author’s personal situation and how the game is too long for him to play than give any true insight in the game or in game development. Pretty much the conclusion is “long games are good for those who have time to play them, but short games are good too”. Personally I prefer a long game that I can play over short periods; at least then I know that I’ll get my money’s worth where with a short game it often is over too soon. It’s his own choice to spend time on WoW/L4D instead.

The second one, titled “[url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... n:20vdenod]On The Ball: A Little More Conversation, A Little Less Action[/url:20vdenod]”, is more interesting. The author makes the observation that the reason to play BioWare games (and Mass Effect 2 in particular in this case) is for the dialog, the story and the characters with the rest just being filler. That’s not a particularly new observation, but I have often felt that BioWare might be better off making pure adventure games (with choices/consequences and branching dialog) instead of trying to put combat and such in there. I wonder what a BioWare game would look like where there truly only is story, because I usually just feel like I’m going through the combat just to get to more dialog.

A review over at the NYTimes website is titled “[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/arts/ ... e:20vdenod]Electronic Arts Drags Out the Saving of the Galaxy[/url:20vdenod]”. They’re generally positive about the game, but do note that it feels like BioWare playing it safe and trying to appeal more to alleviate the criticism of the first game than try anything truly new. In particular they find the story unambitious as they see it mostly as a bunch of side-quests, while individually good, tied together in a loose story. And I must say that they’re not entirely wrong about that. Anyway, here’s an excerpt:

[quote:20vdenod]Hybrids are certainly possible. The original Mass Effect was a role-playing game that BioWare was ambitiously, almost rambunctiously, trying to cram into the form of an action game. With Mass Effect 2, by contrast, BioWare clearly decided to build the game as a shooter type first, leaving in only the lightest of customization options for each character — with far fewer skill options than in the first game — and fuse them with a combat system that can be played almost entirely as a real-time shooter. In terms of the combat dynamics, imagine Gears of War lite with some science-fiction magic powers.[/quote:20vdenod]
GamerZines has an [url=http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/previews/b ... l:20vdenod]interview with Dr. Ray Muzyka[/url:20vdenod]. It’s part two of a three-part interview, but part one and three are both about Dragon Age, so I’ve got those stored for posting with the rest of the Dragon Age news. I haven’t had a chance to read the interview yet though.

One of the most interesting articles that have surfaced in the past few days (regarding Mass Effect 2 anyway) is over at InfoAddict and titled “[url=http://www.infoaddict.com/the-many-fail ... 2:20vdenod]The Many Failures of Mass Effect 2[/url:20vdenod]”. Most review sites and such have been absolutely gushingly positive about the game, many even going so far as to give it a perfect score. Now, I think Mass Effect 2 is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve played (though still not as good as Dragon Age: Origins for me), I don’t think that it’s worth a perfect 10 (don’t know any game that is to be honest). So it’s good, though at times hard if you really like a game, to read a clear list of criticism with it. And I have to say that I agree with all of them. Definitely worth a read, and as I recall spoiler free. Here’s an excerpt:

[quote:20vdenod][b:20vdenod]Mako Gone = Great, Planet Survey = Bad[/b:20vdenod]

One of the many aspects of the original Mass Effect I despised was the awful Mako, an ATV the player drove to explore planets. The problem was the physics behind the Mako, which made it feel like a lame arcade game with all of its bouncing around and assorted nonsense. Bioware obviously heard people’s criticism but instead of fixing the issue they simply removed the feature altogether. Unfortunately, their overall solution is to have the player survey planets from the Normandy, a truly boring and repetitive process that involves holding the mouse button down as you scan the surface of a planet for minerals. This is presented in such a boring and uninteresting way that it comes across as a huge speed bump for the game, a necessary evil imposed on the player because you need those resources to create new upgrades.

[b:20vdenod][i:20vdenod]Mass Effect 3 Improvement:[/i:20vdenod][/b:20vdenod] Make surveying a planet challenging and truly interactive. Make it an experience. Develop an economic model that powers the entire enterprise, have the player fight off enemies for resources, invest in mines and factories. There are a lot of ways to handle this besides looking at a boring planet display and hovering your mouse over the surface. This concept wouldn’t pass muster as a free iPhone app.[/quote:20vdenod]
Kotaku has another, spoiler-filled, article titled “[url=http://kotaku.com/5463816/so-how-did-ma ... u:20vdenod]So, How Did Mas Effect 2 End For You?[/url:20vdenod]”. To avoid spoiling the story for myself I haven’t read it yet, but it could be nice to read the possibilities if you’ve already finished the game.

A third post-review article over at IGN is titled “[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/106/10664 ... l:20vdenod]PS3 Perpective: Mass Effect 2 is Better than Uncharted[/url:20vdenod]”. In it the author claims that, despite him being a great fan of PlayStation and much enjoying Uncharted 2, that he feels that Mass Effect 2 (which isn’t available on the PS3) is a better game. Obviously this is, in part, to fan up some console war flames (and the comments on the post are quite numerous), but I also feel that the deeper sense here is that people just really want Mass Effect 2 on the PS3 and that its lack feels like a true miss. The comparison can further be considered valid since Uncharted 2 got IGN’s Game of the Year 2009 Award and Mass Effect 2 is already been named as a strong contender for Game of the Year 2010 (which seems a bit early to call). Saying “here is a game better than last year’s GotY” is just another way of saying “this game could be this year’s GotY”. Either way I haven’t played any of the Uncharted games (no PS3) so I wouldn’t be able to make that call.

Despite the list of criticism listed in the InfoAddict article above, ArsTechnica list another one in “[url=http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010 ... s:20vdenod]Mass Effect 2 text illegibility on SD TVs result of design decision[/url:20vdenod]”. As you can gather from the title the criticism is that on standard-definition televisions some of the text is too small to read. And it doesn’t look like there’ll be a solution soon. I’m surprised that Microsoft doesn’t have rules governing how small text is allowed to be (either that or their rules are too soft).

IGN also hase a video [url=http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/14235019/ ... l:20vdenod]comparing Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 1[/url:20vdenod]. Don’t really recall any of it (so probably wasn’t that interesting), but here it is anyway:

[center:20vdenod][html]<object id='ignplayer' width='640' height='360' data='http://media.ign.com/ev/embed.swf' type='application/x-shockwave-flash'><param name='movie' value='http://media.ign.com/ev/embed.swf' /><param name='allowfullscreen' value='true' /><param name='allowscriptaccess' value='always' /><param name='bgcolor' value='#000000' /><param name='flashvars' value='vgroup=me_compare_scp_012810&object=14235019'/></object>[/html][/center:20vdenod]
Meanwhile Eurogamer as a “[url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mass- ... p:20vdenod]Mass Effect 2 DLC Roundup[/url:20vdenod]” in which they take a look at the downloadable content released (for free with new purchages) so far. Note that even the title of the second DLC (on page 2) is a spoiler for the start of Mass Effect 2, so avoid that if you don’t know already (though when you download the DLC ingame you get the same spoiler). For the rest the review is spoiler-free for the most part.

Speaking of DLC, BioWare has Twittered (as [url=http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/03/free-in ... /:20vdenod]reported by VG247[/url:20vdenod]) that there should be more free DLC on the Cerberus Network in a couple of weeks. No word on what exactly, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the Hammerhead (which adds a land vehicle to ME2).

And as we’re looking into the future, BioWare has also stated that they’re already working on Mass Effect 3. They haven’t released a target release date yet, but speculation abounds (I’ve seen everything from early 2011 to early 2012; personally I expect it closer to the latter). But [url=http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/02/mass-ef ... /:20vdenod]as VG247 reports[/url:20vdenod] BioWare will release it in a window that maximizes quality and commercial success. Which is pretty much saying nothing. But the link is good for linking to a couple of other news bits that I can’t be bothered to report separately. :p

Of course, with all that, it should be no surprise that Mass Effect 2 is quite a commercial success. A Gamasutra reports it [url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2700 ... p:20vdenod]leads domestic multiplatform sales[/url:20vdenod] in both NA and the UK (it doesn’t report on the rest of Europe) and both on PC and Xbox360 (it’s not available on any other platforms). VG247 reports that, more specifically, the game [url=http://www.vg247.com/2010/01/29/mass-ef ... /:20vdenod]sold 2 million units during launch week[/url:20vdenod]. That’s more than many games sell in their lifetime. Eurogamer also reports that Mass Effect 2 [url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uk-ch ... d:20vdenod]went straight to the top[/url:20vdenod]. Well done BioWare.

Meanwhile the [url=http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/16-422/ ... 2:20vdenod]second issue of the Mass Effect: Redemption comic[/url:20vdenod] has been released. I haven’t even read the first one yet (which is included digitally with my Digital Deluxe edition), but I’m quite curious where Liara’s story will go (and how she got where she is in the game right now). And I wonder if they sell digital copies anywhere. Either way Kotaku has [url=http://kotaku.com/5463371/a-peek-inside ... /:20vdenod]a peek inside[/url:20vdenod] the second issue, showing a couple of the opening pages.

You might also be interested to know that GameBanshee [url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/96688-g ... l:20vdenod]launched their ME2 subsite[/url:20vdenod] listing information on the classes, the squad members, the powers and much more. Though I’m sure that spoilers abound.

And to close this post off, The Escapist has a video titled “[url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... 2:20vdenod]Five Things You Shouldn’t Do in Mass Effect 2[/url:20vdenod]”. The video is entirely spoiler free (as such they’re missing out on at least one... let me just say “Morinth”) and I quite agree with their points. I’m also looking forward to their next, spoiler-filled, list of things you should do. Here’s the video:

[center:20vdenod][html]<embed src="http://cdn2.themis-media.com/media/glob ... -3.1.5.swf" flashvars="config=http://www.themis-media.com/videos/conf ... Fembed%3D1" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" width="650" height="389" wmode="opaque"></embed>[/html][/center:20vdenod]
And that’s it for now. I’ll see if I have time tomorrow to post my list of Dragon Age links.


[[url=http://kotaku.com/5459307/here-are-your ... /:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to Shepard gallery at Kotaku.
[[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/106/10649 ... l:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to “Second Opinions” at IGN.
[[url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2695 ... p:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to Analysis article at Gamasutra.
[[url=http://www.geardiary.com/2010/01/29/vid ... /:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to first impressions at Gear Diary.
[[url=http://www.gamesradar.com/f/mass-effect ... 2:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to romance guide at GamesRadar.
[[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/106/10654 ... l:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to The Blyth Report at IGN.
[[url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... 2:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to “Why I’m Not Playing” article at The Escapist.
[[url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... n:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to “On The Ball” article at The Escapist.
[[url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/arts/ ... e:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to review at NYTimes.
[[url=http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/previews/b ... l:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to interview with Ray Muzyka at GamerZines.
[[url=http://www.infoaddict.com/the-many-fail ... 2:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to “The Many Failures” article at InfoAddict.
[[url=http://kotaku.com/5463816/so-how-did-ma ... u:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to “How Did ME2 End” article at Kotaku.
[[url=http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/106/10664 ... l:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to “PS3 Perspective” article at IGN.
[[url=http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010 ... s:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to text size criticism at ArsTechnica.
[[url=http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/14235019/ ... l:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to ME2 vs ME1 video at IGN.
[[url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mass- ... p:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to DLC Roundup at Eurogamer.
[[url=http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/03/free-in ... /:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to DLC Twitter at VG247.
[[url=http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/02/mass-ef ... /:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to ME3 quality report at VG247.
[[url=http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2700 ... p:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to sales news at Gamasutra.
[[url=http://www.vg247.com/2010/01/29/mass-ef ... /:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to sales news at VG247.
[[url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/uk-ch ... d:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to sales news at Eurogamer.
[[url=http://www.darkhorse.com/Comics/16-422/ ... 2:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to Mass Effect Redemption comic #2 at Dark Horse.
[[url=http://kotaku.com/5463371/a-peek-inside ... /:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to peek inside comic #2 at Kotaku.
[[url=http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/96688-g ... l:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to ME2 subsite at GameBanshee.
[[url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... 2:20vdenod]link[/url:20vdenod]] to “Five Things You Shouldn’t Do” video at The Escapist.


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Shir'le
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-= Shir'le E. Illios =-
Chosen of Eilistraee
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